jras20 said:
Side adjustments. That is the biggest killer. At my home place near Austin, I'm only maybe 12 miles from KBPA's tower, sometimes if Corpus 103.7 or Houston's 103.7 comes in, it even knocks out the HD signal on KBPA. Another example, 95.5 KKMJ, KLEY 95.7 south of San antonio skips up a lot of the time, kills the HD signal.
Since HD works by occupying the adjacent channels, both up and down from the analog channel, this will be very difficult to "fix" in its current form. For instance if a station broadcasts in HD on 95.5, then its HD sidebands will be found on 95.3 as well as 95.7. At the current injection level of -20 db, it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem, although range and building penetration are somewhat limited. This is a hybrid system which is a compromise at best. Going all digital and thus occupying only one channel would solve the problem, but that means giving up an audience that owns around a billion analog radios. Nobody in their right mind is going to do that at this stage of the game.
jras20 said:
I think HD Radio also needs to Stop the FCC from putting in these translator FM stations around. There is one not to far out of KROX's 101.5. Theres a 101.7 maybe 20 miles from it, I know that will be a BIG factor since I can receive them very good even 20 miles from the transmitter of the translator.
Well, stand by. Still left over from the "Great Translator Invasion" are about 8500 unprocessed applications. A lot of them will eventually be granted. With the current fervor to put AM and HD-2 channels on analog translators, I don't see much possibility of eliminating additional ones. Odds are there will be a lot more in your future. There are already something like 12-13,000 translators either on the air or with Construction Permits. It is very hard to ""un-ring" a bell, or as they say here in Texas, "That horse has left the barn."
jras20 said:
They also need to amp up the signal on HD. If people like me only 30 miles from the towers experience reception problems, than they will most likely take the radio back. I like the idea of more channels, but they need to get these things fixed! IF not then I truly think its doomed.
As I mentioned in the first response (above), the HD signal is contained on the adjacent channels, relative to the analog signal. If you increase the power as you suggest, people like you may very well have even more reception problems, not less. The proponents of raising the power are assuming that only a few stations will actually do it, and the interference problems will be minimal. Maybe so, but think about what would happen if everybody lit up a high powered HD signal. Somehow, I don't think you’d like it.
Further, nobody seems to be taking into account the effect that ‘skip” has on these stations, and even on their distant neighbors. Even the biggest HD radio proponents concede that raising the power levels by 10 db may not work in every instance.
One thing is for sure: If we succeed in turning the FM band into an RF sewer, a lot of people will seek other forms of entertainment. That may be Internet, Ipod, their own CD collection, maybe satellite, or something that none of us have envisioned as yet. Time will tell.
